Footnotes
to a History of the Corsage and Footnotes
to a History of Psychoanalysis

by
Kristina Marie Darling

Footnotes
to a History of the Corsage

_________________________________________________

1. Two
of the darkest lilies, which he fastened at the shoulder of her green
silk dress.

2. On
nights like this the dance hall groaned with their erratic foxtrot. A
phonograph spinning beneath dim chandeliers.

3. “I
had wanted to transcend the ordinary, with its brick houses and gardens
of white crocuses. Now the most bourgeois ribbons gathered
at my wrist.”

4.Courtship.
1. The act, period,
or art of seeking love with the intent to marry.
†2. A set of
inherited conventions or customs.
‡3. The solicitation
of praise, favors, etc.

5. The
mural depicts her attempt to maintain a noctuary, detailing his adulation
of her finer points. Despite numerous scholarly articles devoted
to the work’s inscription, art historians have not yet discovered
the fate of her milky-eyed beloved.

6. She
slipped a flower in his coat pocket to preserve the ritual, its delicate
structure. But before long the music stopped. The phonograph
still spinning beneath its luminous needle.

7. The
film (c. 1988) follows a woman through a series of broken engagements. Although
several attempts have been made to differentiate between the four
men, the problem seems intrinsic to her own psychology.

8. Melancholia. A
state of mourning for the lost object.

9. “It
was then I remembered the dance hall, his ominous presentation of
the corsage. A manicured garden held by the most intricate
clasp.”

10. When
she unpinned the lilies, a quiet upheaval. The most startling
numbness in each of her fingertips.

Footnotes
to a History of Psychoanalysis

_____________________________________________

1. A
lengthy message, in which she describes the analyst’s shelves
of priceless Egyptian statuettes.

2. In
order to effectively describe the recurring dream, in which a luminous
white horse appeared to her, she sent a wire after their office had
closed. The steel dials clicking into the dark blue night.

3. “Ever
since I had wished for the collection, but also the role of its proprietor. To
catalogue his little Vishnu idols and the disquieting canopic jars.”

4.Disturbance.1. A
distressed mental state.
†2. An interruption
or intrusion.
3. A minor movement
of the earth, often resulting in a small earthquake or the
formation
of a mountain.

5. According
to Havelock Ellis, author of The World of Dreams (1911),
her luxurious chalet alone did not constitute a refuge. It
was only after the blizzard, when the region’s telegraph wires
had collapsed under ice, that she could be said to have retreated
from the conflict.

6. Every
house in the province contained an elaborate collection of bone china,
which was rimmed with tiny black crocuses. Before long she
found herself enthralled by the luxurious dishes. Her notebooks
compare their dark flowers to a silhouette projected against towering
snowdrifts.

7. The
album depicts his collection of Mediterranean sea glass and various
relics from the shrines of saints. While several attempts have
been made to recover the artifact, it is suspected to have been lost
in the avalanche.

8.Vorstellen. Translated
from the German as imagined.

9. To
reconcile the disparity between her mind and the external world,
the analyst prompted her to maintain a record of these perceptions.

10. Upon
examination, her small red notebook contained the most elaborate
diagrams. Even the mountainous vistas were depicted as intricate
machines.

11. The
message sent after their final session, in which she describes his
prized statue shattered on the ledge.

Kristina
Marie Darling’s third
full-length poetry collection, The Body is a Little Gilded
Cage: A Story in Letters & Fragments, is
forthcoming from Gold Wake Press in 2012. Her awards include
fellowships from Yaddo, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Virginia
Center for the Creative Arts, as well as grants from the Vermont
Studio Center and the Elizabeth George Foundation.